Just about 33% of school-aged children in Baramita, Region One attend school and many youngsters between the ages of 10 to 16 years work in the goldfields, Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs Sydney Allicock has said.
“We have these young people who go, they already know about money, they already know about alcohol, so they go punting as you call it, so they ain got time for the school, they going and punt, get their money and go and buy their food, drink their liquor and next day they go back again,” the Minister told Stabroek News during an interview on Friday. “Being a mining place there is a lot of sexually transmitted diseases…it’s an ugly situation there that is not easy to handle but we have to start somewhere and we have started,” he added.
He said that various ministries are working to tackle the many problems in the indigenous community populated by persons mainly of the Carib nation where small and large scale mining is the main economic activity. Recent visits by the authorities uncovered myriad problems in the community including a high suicide rate, substance abuse among adults and children, sexual assault, sexually transmitted diseases and mismanagement of resources, among others.
“There are about 300 youths, children of school-age and just about 100 goes to school,” Allicock said. “A lot of them never went to school and the literacy levels (are) very, very poor, they just understand their language, Carib,” he added. He said that many of the children, with ages ranging between 10 to 16 years, go to the mines and work, buy food and liquor and return to the mines, continuing the cycle.
Asked what immediate measures the authorities had taken to ensure the children are enrolled in school, Allicock said that it is a “culture” that has to be tackled gradually and in a sensitive manner. “Yes, but you could be doing more harm, remember there is a suicide level, the highest…there is a high suicide rate there and you put pressure on people, they already accustom, you might get more suicide cases,” he said.
The Government Information Agency reported recently that the number of suicides in Baramita between 2006 and 2015 was 69, with 10 last year. According to the WHO, Guyana had the highest estimated suicide rate for 2012 in the world.
“The children complain about not getting food and not getting uniforms, so they don’t go to school,” the minister said. He added that the school building cannot accommodate all the students, only the 100 children currently attending and it is cramped. Further, he said, the “teaching there is not in keeping with what we would like to see as a government school.”
The Ministry of Education has provided $4 million for a ‘Hot Meal’ programme to provide meals for both the kindergarten and primary school students. It has also been recommended that another school be built and efforts were made to do so by private persons but now, it is up to the Ministry of Education, the minister said.
Enrolled
Pressed about immediate efforts to get the children enrolled given the law for mandatory school attendance, Allicock responded that there were efforts “but where you gon put them?” He added that every day, there is an effort to get the children in school by the village council and teachers.
Asked whether this was enough, he said that nothing in life could be enough but “the situation is you gotta start somewhere” while also getting the right people involved and respecting the people’s situation. Further, the minister said, the children are also not getting food as their parents are not farming and work instead in the goldfields.
Stabroek News had earlier been told by persons familiar with the issues faced by the community that the rate of alcoholism is extremely high and this was blamed on miners who bring in alcohol and hold sway over some of the community’s leaders. “There was initial tenseness…more than I could tell you in a day with the miners who take control and all those sort of things,” Allicock confirmed.
The minister said that the authorities are working on closing down unlicenced shops, identifying persons taking in alcohol and setting up checkpoints.
“It’s a culture there that we need to now start to dismantle, not in an aggressive manner…but it is about a lot of education because arrogance and ignorance is the worst combination that you could ever meet with,” he said while adding that it will take some time. “Certain things you just can’t run in and say you fixing things. It would be more detrimental,” he emphasised. This is why the health and social welfare authorities, the police, the National Toshaos Council, and other non-governmental organisations, were part of the move to understand the situation, make a connection and continue to fill in the holes that are there, he said.
“It’s all about education and trying to find the balance,” Allicock asserted while recalling that the first trip to the community was really tense but the second trip was better and the team was able to determine deficiencies and needs.
“I think we’ve started on a reasonably good footing,” he said while adding that the best part is the willingness of the current village council to work together after the initial tenseness. There is need for continuous follow-up and strengthening and this is what is being done at the moment, Allicock said.
Currently, the ministry has a representative in the village who remains in contact with the ministry every day. “We have to put a system in place, work with the village council.
At the beginning there was some resistance but we found that there is a willingness now to learn and we have our person on the ground who is going to help them to get their books in order, to put systems in place and to look at what is happening according to the Amerindian Act,” the minister said.
He said that there is need for teachers and social workers in the remote community and the council has been asked to identify three to be trained in social work and also persons who want to teach.
In terms of agriculture, Allicock said that some persons from the agriculture department were also taken to the community and some villagers indicated their willingness to go back to farming but said they needed seeds and advice. “But most of the people are working in the mines, they ain got time for farming anymore, buying, everything is from Georgetown,” Allicock lamented. He said that the ministry is encouraging residents to farm and noted that they could be selling their produce. This will be the subject of follow-up visits and discussions to determine progress made and what is necessary, he asserted.
“It’s a process that has to take time if we are going to do it properly,” Allicock emphasised. He noted that they have to gain the respect of the community, give the necessary support and get a group of key players to move the interventions forward. However, getting such a group is difficult because of the limited capacity, he said while adding that there is lots to be done.
“For a start, I am quite happy that the council has signaled their willingness to making things happen, to work with us and others to come out of that situation,” he said while adding that he thought it would have taken longer. He said that the willingness is quite encouraging and stressed the need to follow up.
Allicock related that Baramita is only one community and there are 210 more with about 100 probably in the same situation. He said that a committee is on stream and will be following up in the other communities especially those in the mining areas.
